National Energy Administration: Standardize the use of forest land for photovoltaic and wind power construction and ensure reasonable photovoltaic land needs

Recently,National Energy AdministrationAnnounce the summary of the reply to Proposal No. 02582 of the Fifth Session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Among them, the National Energy Administration mentioned in its reply to the "Proposal on Increased Support for the Development of New Energy in Shanxi" that in order to coordinate the development and construction of photovoltaic and wind power and forest resource protection, support the sustainable and healthy development of photovoltaic and wind power, and standardize the use of forest land for the construction and use of photovoltaic and wind power. In addition, we will actively work with the Ministry of Natural Resources and other relevant departments to continuously improve the land use policy for photovoltaic power generation, increase support, and ensure reasonable land use needs.

The original text is as follows:

Summary of reply to proposal No. 02582 of the Fifth Session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference

You have received your proposal on increasing support for Shanxi's new energy development. After research and consultation with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Natural Resources, and the State Forestry and Grassland Administration, the reply is as follows:

Since 2020, General Secretary Xi Jinping has delivered important speeches on carbon peak and carbon neutrality on many domestic and international occasions, emphasizing that achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality is not something that others ask us to do, but that we must do it ourselves. It has clarified new tasks, pointed out new directions, and put forward new requirements for the development of my country's new energy. In recent years, my country's new energy industry has attracted worldwide attention, and its new and cumulative installed capacity has ranked first in the world for many years. According to statistics, as of the end of June this year, the total installed capacity of wind power, photovoltaic power generation and biomass power generation in my country reached 342 million kilowatts, 336 million kilowatts and 39.5 million kilowatts respectively; the power generation continues to increase, and the total power generation in 2021 reaches 1.15 trillion kilowatt hours, basically equivalent to the domestic electricity consumption of residents in the country, accounting for 13.8% of the total social electricity consumption; new energy power generation technology continues to improve and costs are rapidly declining. my country has mastered a relatively complete new energy equipment manufacturing industry chain, which strongly supports my country's new energy to basically enter a new stage of parity and subsidy development. Against the background of carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals, the development of new energy faces new situations, new tasks and new requirements, but to achieve large-scale, high-proportion and high-quality development, there are still many constraints, especially the land use constraints becoming increasingly prominent. In May this year, the General Office of the State Council forwarded the "Implementation Plan for Promoting the High-Quality Development of New Energy in the New Era" of the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration, and clearly put forward relevant support policies to ensure the reasonable space needs for new energy development.

1. Policy regulations on revising land use for photovoltaic projects

In September 2017, the former Ministry of Land and Resources, the former State Council Poverty Alleviation Office, and the National Energy Administration jointly issued the "Opinions on Supporting Photovoltaic Poverty Alleviation and Standardizing Land for Photovoltaic Power Generation Industry" (Land and Resources Regulations [2017] No. 8, hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), clarifying the land use management policies for photovoltaic composite projects. The issuance of the "Opinions" strongly supported the development of photovoltaic composite projects. On the premise of not affecting crop production or destroying agricultural production conditions, in principle, the development of agricultural photovoltaic projects such as agricultural and light complementarity is supported. First, when using arable land other than permanent basic farmland, the relevant requirements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on strict protection of arable land should be implemented, and strict regulations should be strictly stipulated on the premise of avoiding photovoltaic projects competing with grain and other crops for light sources, and strictly prohibiting the "non-grainization" and "non-agriculturalization" of arable land. Second, when using agricultural land other than arable land, if crop production has high requirements for light sources (such as economic forestry and fruits, etc.), strict requirements should be provided to avoid photovoltaic projects competing for light sources with crops; if the crop itself has low requirements for light sources (such as fungi, characteristic crops, etc.), or does not require light conditions (such as aquatic products, livestock and poultry breeding, etc.), agricultural photovoltaic projects on existing structures such as agricultural facilities should be supported. In addition, photovoltaic power generation projects are encouraged to use unused land. When a photovoltaic power generation project uses deserts, Gobi, deserts and other unused land, the land use part that does not occupy the land or changes the surface form can be determined according to the original place and does not change the land use; the permanent construction land part of the project should be handled according to the construction land in accordance with the law. The Ministry of Natural Resources will actively guide provincial natural resources authorities to improve the quality and efficiency of land use approval in accordance with the requirements of speeding up progress and not lowering standards, and make every effort to provide land use factor guarantees for high-quality development. In the next step, we will actively work with the Ministry of Natural Resources and other relevant departments to continuously improve the land use policy for photovoltaic power generation, increase support, and ensure reasonable land use needs.

2. Appropriately relax restrictions on forest land construction photovoltaic and wind power projects

In order to coordinate the development and construction of photovoltaic and wind power and forest resource protection, support the sustainable and healthy development of photovoltaic and wind power, and standardize the construction and use of forest land by photovoltaic and wind power, the State Forestry and Grassland Administration has successively issued the "Notice of the State Forestry Administration on Issues Related to the Construction and Use of Forestry Land in Photovoltaic Power Stations" (Lin Zifa [2015] No. 153) and the "Notice of the State Forestry and Grassland Administration on Standardizing the Construction and Use of Forestry and Wind Farm Projects" (Lin Zifa [2019] No. 17), adhere to the principles of ecological priority, protection priority, and conservation and intensive use of forest land, reasonably plan and layout, and clarify the prohibited areas for photovoltaic and wind power construction. For photovoltaic and wind power construction projects that meet the conditions for using forest land, the review and approval procedures for the use of forest land should be strictly followed in accordance with the requirements of the above two notices and the review and approval procedures for the use of forest land in accordance with the law.

Thank you for your concern and understanding of national energy work, and hope to receive more support and guidance from you in the future.

National Energy Administration